Friday, March 6, 2009

Just four days ago we saw over nine inches of snowfall. The next two mornings following that we exprienced low temperatures in the single digits. However by today the high is forecast to be in the sixties, and we can expect seventies by tomorrow. Of course these warm temperatures are causing the snow accumulation from earlier in the week to melt away pretty quick. As one of snowbanks near the house retreated it revealed a sign of spring that had been lurking underneath.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Here is an interesting contrast. 'Sunrise on the Farm' from July and then this morning. I found the difference in sun angle to be quite noticeable.

Yesterday's post was created about 2 hours into the snowstorm. It kept snowing until sometime into the wee hours of this morning. By last evening the wind picked up and it is still blowing pretty good. Therefore we had quite a bit of drifting so it is a little difficult to tell just how much snow we received. I found a spot that seemed pretty sheltered and measured 9.5 inches. That is about what the final forecasts for our area thought we might get, so that is probably a pretty close estimate.

In some places near the house and cars, the drifts piled up to a foot and a half or more.

Below are several more pictures from this morning.

Looking North up the highway this morning

Looking South

Even when there is just a dusting of snow, the chickens don't like to walk in it. So this morning, they were really not interested in coming out. Today is the first time in my life that I have had to shovel out a path in the snow for chickens before I shoveled my own sidewalk. I shoveled out a path for them to get from their roost house to the nest house and from the roost house to the feeder stand. I think once they get hungry enough, they will venture out.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

It is hard to believe my last post was all the way back in July. The time sure has flown by since then. In that last post I wrote about unusual weather that we were experiencing that day. Today's post will also describe some unusual weather, at least for this particular winter.

Snow is not an unusual occurence in Southwest Virginia during the winter, but it has been this year. So far this winter we have had very few measurable snowfalls, and I don't think any have amounted to more than an inch. Most have been dustings of snow, sleet, or the occasional bout of freezing rain.

So here it is March 1st, the first day of meteorological Spring, and we are finally receiving our first good snow for the season. It started snowing about 1:30 this afternoon and is projected to keep snowing until tomorrow morning. Here are a few pictures from the first couple hours of this event.

We live right along a major US Highway and the state transportation department does a very good job of keeping it maintained in wintry conditions. However today's snowfall was accumulating so rapidly that the plows were having a difficult time keeping pace. Here is a shot looking north up the highway about 15 minutes after the plow had come through.